1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a method for controlling the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus performs image forming on a sheet by using a recording material such as toner. Generally, the recording material is contained in a container such as a cartridge. Some image forming apparatuses detect the remaining amount of the recording material in the container and display its value on a display unit such as a user interface (UI).
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-343621 discusses a conventional technique for calculating a predicted value of the remaining amount of toner based on a dot count value of raster data and then displaying the value as a current value of the remaining amount of toner at the time of image formation.
Meanwhile, in a toner LOW state where the remaining amount of toner is low, information indicating the toner LOW state or information for prompting a user to prepare a cartridge may be displayed. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-318508 discusses a technique in which a user is able to arbitrarily change a threshold value for determining the toner LOW state, i.e., a toner LOW threshold value.
However, if the toner LOW threshold value can be changed at any time, a problem arises particularly in the following cases.
In a case where the remaining amount of toner is predicted based on the dot count, the amount of toner consumption is calculated by multiplying the dot count value by a toner consumption coefficient that indicates the amount of toner consumption per dot. An appropriate value is preset as the toner consumption coefficient, assuming a case where printing is performed by using a predetermined cartridge containing a predetermined toner.
However, if printing is performed by using a cartridge different from the thus assumed cartridge, the toner is consumed at a rate different from the preset toner consumption coefficient, often resulting in low accuracy of toner prediction.
In such a situation, it does not make much sense to make the toner LOW threshold value changeable. In many cases, the user changes the toner LOW threshold value because the user desires to improve the accuracy of toner LOW detection. If the accuracy of toner prediction is low in the above-described situation in the first place, changing the toner LOW threshold value does not sufficiently improve the accuracy of toner LOW detection.